Book Review: How to Say Babylon by Safiya Sinclair

 

About:

With echoes of Educated and Born a Crime, How to Say Babylon is the stunning story of the author’s struggle to break free of her rigid Rastafarian upbringing, ruled by her father’s strict patriarchal views and repressive control of her childhood, to find her own voice as a woman and poet.

Throughout her childhood, Safiya Sinclair’s father, a volatile reggae musician and militant adherent to a strict sect of Rastafari, became obsessed with her purity, in particular, with the threat of what Rastas call Babylon, the immoral and corrupting influences of the Western world outside their home. He worried that womanhood would make Safiya and her sisters morally weak and impure, and believed a woman’s highest virtue was her obedience.

In an effort to keep Babylon outside the gate, he forbade almost everything. In place of pants, the women in her family were made to wear long skirts and dresses to cover their arms and legs, head wraps to cover their hair, no make-up, no jewelry, no opinions, no friends. Safiya’s mother, while loyal to her father, nonetheless gave Safiya and her siblings the gift of books, including poetry, to which Safiya latched on for dear life. And as Safiya watched her mother struggle voicelessly for years under housework and the rigidity of her father’s beliefs, she increasingly used her education as a sharp tool with which to find her voice and break free. Inevitably, with her rebellion comes clashes with her father, whose rage and paranoia explodes in increasing violence. As Safiya’s voice grows, lyrically and poetically, a collision course is set between them.

How to Say Babylon is Sinclair’s reckoning with the culture that initially nourished but ultimately sought to silence her; it is her reckoning with patriarchy and tradition, and the legacy of colonialism in Jamaica. Rich in lyricism and language only a poet could evoke, How to Say Babylon is both a universal story of a woman finding her own power and a unique glimpse into a rarefied world we may know how to name, Rastafari, but one we know little about.'

My Thoughts

This memoir has to be one of if not the best memoir I have ever read in my entire life. Safiya Sinclair clearly took her time to paint a very clear picture of what her life was like growing up Rastafarian.

Hers is a story of pain and glory. What I absolutely love and appreciate about this story is the uniqueness of it. I was happy to learn more about Rastafarisnism customs especially.

Safiya and her family went through a lot, all members. Her father, I think is the most notable character. I love how in the midst of all the trauma the family experienced growing up with him, I cant help but feeling it made all of them stronger. I felt sad for him because, it seemed he had a vision of how his life would have turned out and felt like a failure in a way.

I cannot wait for my book club to unpack this.

This is a masterpiece.

Bridgertons #1: The Duke and I by Julia Quinn

 About 

In the ballrooms and drawing rooms of Regency London, rules abound. From their earliest days, children of aristocrats learn how to address an earl and curtsey before a prince—while other dictates of the ton are unspoken yet universally understood. A proper duke should be imperious and aloof. A young, marriageable lady should be amiable…but not too amiable.

Daphne Bridgerton has always failed at the latter. The fourth of eight siblings in her close-knit family, she has formed friendships with the most eligible young men in London. Everyone likes Daphne for her kindness and wit. But no one truly desires her. She is simply too deuced honest for that, too unwilling to play the romantic games that captivate gentlemen.

Amiability is not a characteristic shared by Simon Basset, Duke of Hastings. Recently returned to England from abroad, he intends to shun both marriage and society—just as his callous father shunned Simon throughout his painful childhood. Yet an encounter with his best friend’s sister offers another option. If Daphne agrees to a fake courtship, Simon can deter the mamas who parade their daughters before him. Daphne, meanwhile, will see her prospects and her reputation soar.

The plan works like a charm—at first. But amid the glittering, gossipy, cut-throat world of London’s elite, there is only one certainty: love ignores every rule...

This novel includes the 2nd epilogue, a peek at the story after the story.

My Thoughts 

This was my last book for 2023 and I enjoyed it a lot. As most people I would have watched Bridgerton on Netflix. I heard many mixed reviews about the novels.

I am not much of a romance reader but I fell in love with Daphne and Simon more than I did in the series. I love how complicated Simon was as a result of his childhood and how it took his one true love Daphne Bridgerton to help him conquer his fears. This whole story really showed what true love is.

There was humor in it as well. I especially liked Violet Bridgerton's character. She had some funny moments in the story. The book helped me to understand her a little more.

In all this was a great way to end the ye

Book Review: Too Late by Colleen Hoover

 

About 

Sloan will go through hell and back for those she loves. And she does so, every single day. Caught up with the alluring Asa Jackson, a notorious drug trafficker, Sloan has finally found a lifeline to cling to, even if it’s meant compromising her morals. She was in dire straits trying to pay for her brother’s care until she met Asa. But as Sloan became emotionally and economically reliant on him, he in turn developed a disturbing obsession with her—one that becomes increasingly dangerous every day.

When undercover DEA agent Carter enters the picture, Sloan’s surprised to feel an immediate attraction between them, despite knowing that if Asa finds out, he will kill him. And Asa has always been a step ahead of everyone in his life, including Sloan. No one has ever gotten in his way.

No one except Carter.

Together, Sloan and Carter must find a way out before it’s too late…

My Thoughts 

The year started off really crazy for me however, I was to get through all that was going on with yet another amazing book by Colleen Hoover. Now if you have been following my reviews you will know that I am on a mission to read all the books by this author.

Too Late is one of my favourites. I like romantic stories with a storyline and Sloan and Luke's story was really dramatic to say the least. In Too Late we meet Sloan, a young woman who had to make some hard decisions because of the hands she was dealt in life. She finds some comfort in her boyfriend ASA.

Asa is involved in shady dealings and is dealing with demons of his own. While undercover Luke gets a first hand view of the life of Asa. He suddenly becomes very intent on saving Sloan before it is Too Late.

Filled with suspense, drama and romance. Too Late is indeed a page turner.

The Amendment by Kiersten Modglin

About

The dark, scandalous, and completely twisted sequel to Kiersten Modglin’s #1 bestselling domestic thriller, THE ARRANGEMENT…

First, there was the arrangement.
A simple, yet salacious fix to the problems looming in their marriage.
But when things took a tragic turn, Peter’s and Ainsley’s lives quickly fell into disarray.

Now, their secrets have been exposed.
They know the truth—about each other and their marriage.
As they struggle to move on from their past and the damage they’ve caused, new problems begin to surface.

Someone they love is hiding a catastrophic secret. The fragile ground they stand on is starting to crumble. Their family is being torn apart at the seams. And, maybe worst of all, a threat from the past is lurking, ready to unveil the things they’d kill to keep hidden.

They thought the nightmare they’d made it through was over, but the worst is just beginning…

Once, they vowed to do anything to make their marriage work.
Now, that vow will push every boundary they have left.

In order to survive, they’ll need to completely trust each other.
But can they?
Last time they did, things went terribly wrong…
This time, it might be worse.
If there’s one thing that’s certain, their secrets are too big to let anyone walk away alive.

My Thoughts

I am obsessed with this series. 

What an ending!!! Normally when you read a sequel very often you find that the story gets boring but not this one. 

On to Part Three is all I can say.
 

Book Review: All Your Perfects by Colleen Hoover

About

Colleen Hoover delivers a tour de force novel about a troubled marriage and the one old forgotten promise that might be able to save it.

Quinn and Graham’s perfect love is threatened by their imperfect marriage. The memories, mistakes, and secrets that they have built up over the years are now tearing them apart. The one thing that could save them might also be the very thing that pushes their marriage beyond the point of repair.

All Your Perfects is a profound novel about a damaged couple whose potential future hinges on promises made in the past. This is a heartbreaking page-turner that asks: Can a resounding love with a perfect beginning survive a lifetime between two imperfect people?

My Thoughts

This is my fifth time reading Colleen Hoover. Again you fall in love with a couple which in this case is Graham and Quinn. Theirs was a chance meeting that soon turned into a deep love and a marriage.

The story is interesting because it speaks to love in the face of challenges. This couple is suffering from infertility and it caused turmoil and sadness in their marriage.

The beauty about the story is the realness of it, since many couples go through these problems and sometimes do not survive the storm. Graham and Quinn represents so many people out there so while it is a love story it is also a story of hope and survival.

While this is not my favourite book by Colleen Hoover it is a decent read.

 

Holly by Stephen King

 

About

“Sometimes the universe throws you a rope.” — BILL HODGES

Stephen King’s Holly marks the triumphant return of beloved King character Holly Gibney. Readers have witnessed Holly’s gradual transformation from a shy (but also brave and ethical) recluse in Mr. Mercedes to Bill Hodges’s partner in Finders Keepers to a full-fledged, smart, and occasionally tough private detective in The Outsider. In King’s new novel, Holly is on her own, and up against a pair of unimaginably depraved and brilliantly disguised adversaries.

When Penny Dahl calls the Finders Keepers detective agency hoping for help locating her missing daughter, Holly is reluctant to accept the case. Her partner, Pete, has Covid. Her (very complicated) mother has just died. And Holly is meant to be on leave. But something in Penny Dahl’s desperate voice makes it impossible for Holly to turn her down.

Mere blocks from where Bonnie Dahl disappeared live Professors Rodney and Emily Harris. They are the picture of bourgeois respectability: married octogenarians, devoted to each other, and semi-retired lifelong academics. But they are harboring an unholy secret in the basement of their well-kept, book-lined home, one that may be related to Bonnie’s disappearance. And it will prove nearly impossible to discover what they are up to: they are savvy, they are patient, and they are ruthless.

Holly must summon all her formidable talents to outthink and outmaneuver the shockingly twisted professors in this chilling new masterwork from Stephen King.

My Thoughts

Well, well, well.

As much as I read you would not believe that this was my first Stephen King novel that I read in it's entirety. I own quite a few of his books but never actually sat and read one. Last year I read about 30% of 11/22/63 and lost interest. (i will definitely be revisiting that one).

After reading Holly I am obsessed with King. I know to real Stephen King fans this is not maybe his best, but trust me I have been binge watching booktube for more suggestions.

Holly is a private investigator with a case that will blow your mind. What I loved is the complexity of the case because I kept wondering if she would ever figure out what the Harrises were doing....I would say no more. Read this you all.

Suggest another King book for me...

Book Review: The Arrangement by Kiersten Modglin

 

ABOUT

Ainsley Greenburg is a fixer.
It’s what she prides herself on.

So, when she realizes her marriage is at its breaking point, she makes a decision to repair it, no matter the cost. Approaching her husband to propose the arrangement is supposed to be the hard part, but Peter agrees to the salacious plan almost immediately.

The rules are simple:
They will each date someone new once a week.
They will never discuss what happens on the dates.

Soon, though, the rules are broken, turning terrible mistakes into unspeakable consequences.

When the only person they can count on to keep their darkest secret is each other, new questions and deceits surface. Can they truly trust the person they share a life with, or will the vicious lies that have mounted over the years destroy everything they’ve built?

Once, Peter and Ainsley vowed to stand together forever, but as they push boundaries of deception, suspicion, and temptation, each begins to wonder if ’til death do us part may come sooner than they’d intended.

MY THOUGHTS

I was up late last night reading this book because I was really anxious to get to the end, and the ending was EXPLOSIVE!!!!

Ainsley and Peter, upon hitting a rough patch in their marriage and after many failed attempts at reconciliation decides that the best thing for them would be an open marriage. So using a dating app that guarantees anonymity, this couple decides to "hook up" with strangers to somehow reignite a fire that they would have lost over the years. This arrangement set off a chain of events that would have you at the edge of your seat.

I came into this book thinking that it would be a very predictable story. But predictable it was not, the ending had me screaming in disbelief, now I HAVE to get my hands on the other two parts because I need to know what happened next. This is a quick read and very entertaining especially if you are a lover of psychological thrillers like me.

READ IT!!! I am trying to get my hands on the second and third book.

Book Review: Men Unleashed by Vaugh T. Stanford

About:

Are Men Dogs? Steven Gardner thinks they are. 

He grabs the chance to highlight, through his feature in The National Standard , the myriad ways that men in his country abuse the women in their lives. Week after week, Gardner churns out story after story of women's dreadful mistreatment at the hands of the men they had the misfortune to love. 

This journalist is on a mission to change all that. He wants women to stand up and demand that men do better. But Gardner does not foresee the storm that breaks over his head in the form of pushback from colleagues, from random haters – and even from himself. Can one flawed man change a nation?

My Thoughts

Domestic violence has been something that we as Trinbagonians have been grappling with for decades, maybe centuries. In some cases, it has has led to broken homes, individuals and in other cases it has led to death women in most cases have been on the receiving end of this type of violence.

Men Unleashed is a book like no other. I am so happy that I was given the opportunity to read this book where the author creatively addressed this issue in a work of fiction.

In the book we meet Steven Gardener, a journalist from Trinidad and Tobago, upon his sister being held for the attempted murder of her husband, was inspired to write a column entitled "Men are Dogs". The stories that this column shared made for very good reading in my opinion because they were so raw and realistic, some of them I could personally relate to in terms of similar things that have occurred to family members and even friends. I really like books that make you think.

While the book addressed some hard topics, there were also some fun sides to it as well. Steven was such an interesting character I actually wished to read more about him. A sequel perhaps??

I hope more people can put their hands on this book. Trust me you would not be disappointed.

I highly recommend.

 

Book Review: One True Loves by Taylor Jenkins Reid

 

ABOUT 

In her twenties, Emma Blair marries her high school sweetheart, Jesse. They build a life for themselves, far away from the expectations of their parents and the people of their hometown in Massachusetts. They travel the world together, living life to the fullest and seizing every opportunity for adventure.

On their first wedding anniversary, Jesse is on a helicopter over the Pacific when it goes missing. Just like that, Jesse is gone forever.

Emma quits her job and moves home in an effort to put her life back together. Years later, now in her thirties, Emma runs into an old friend, Sam, and finds herself falling in love again. When Emma and Sam get engaged, it feels like Emma’s second chance at happiness.

That is, until Jesse is found. He’s alive, and he’s been trying all these years to come home to her. With a husband and a fiancé, Emma has to now figure out who she is and what she wants, while trying to protect the ones she loves.

Who is her one true love? What does it mean to love truly?

Emma knows she has to listen to her heart. She’s just not sure what it’s saying.

My Thoughts 

This has been my fifth time reading Taylor Jenkins Reid and if you have been following my blog, you could tell that I am a big fan of her work. It seems that everything she writes grips me from the very beginning. One True Loves is no exception.

Imagine thinking your husband, your first love is dead and as soon as you move on with a fiancé' no less, after three years, he returns very much alive and anxious to begin where you guys left off.

This was exactly the case with Emma Blair. Emma, upon hearing that her husband Jesse was found alive had to make a decision. Jesse had been Emma's "One True Love" since high school. It was difficult for her to move on, but her fiancé Sam, (who loved Emma from the sidelines since high school) made it easy for her to get over Jesse's death with his charming ways.

She was now in a situation where she had a husband and a fiancé. Emma had a decision to make. Sam or Jesse?

I loved everything about this story, there was love, sadness, loss. But what stood out for me was the theme of grief and starting over. Too often many people who lose someone like a spouse, feel bad I think to move on. Emma's story in how she dealt with grief and starting anew was handled quite well by the author which made for excellent reading,

Book Review: The Day I Fell off My Island by Yvonne Bailey-Smith

 

ABOUT:

The Day I Fell Off My Island tells the story of Erna Mullings, a teenage Jamaican girl uprooted from her island following the sudden death of her beloved grandmother. When Erna is sent to England to be reunited with her siblings, she dreads leaving behind her elderly grandfather, and the only life she has ever known. A new future unfolds, in a strange country and with a mother she barely knows. The next decade will be a complex journey of estrangement and arrival, new beginnings, and the uncovering of long-buried secrets.

MY THOUGHTS:

This was indeed a page turner. Another great Caribbean novel. I love stories about migration since this is very much a part of Caribbean life.

In this novel we meet Erna Mullings a young girl who lives in rural Jamaica with her grandparents. Having no relationship with both her parents, Erna spends her childhood happy in the humble home of her grandparents.

When Erna's grandmother Melba dies, and after her siblings " devil" dad kidnaps them. She is forced to go live with her mom, husband and siblings in England.

Life in England proves hard for Erna as she realizes that all is not well with Violet (her mom) and especially her sister Patsy, whose behaviour reveals something sinister.

Erna's determination to improve her situation in spite of everything is what made the book so wonderful for me. Her love for her island home and her grandparents was also very moving.

This story was tragic, yet very beautiful. I highly recommend this one.

BOOK REVIEW: When We Were Birds by Ayanna Lloyd Banwo

About

A mythic love story set in Trinidad and Tobago, Ayanna Lloyd Banwo's radiant debut introduces two unforgettable outsiders brought together by their connection with the dead.

You were never the smartest child, but even you should know that when a dead woman offers you a cigarette, the polite thing to do would be to take it. Especially when that dead woman is your mother.

The St. Bernard women have lived in Morne Marie, the house on top of a hill outside Port Angeles, for generations. Built from the ashes of a plantation that enslaved their ancestors, it has come to shelter a lineage that is bonded by much more than blood. One woman in each generation of St. Bernards is responsible for the passage of the city's souls into the afterlife. But Yejide's relationship with her mother, Petronella, has always been contorted by anger and neglect, which Petronella stubbornly carries to her death bed, leaving Yejide unprepared to fulfill her destiny.

Raised in the countryside by a devout Rastafarian mother, Darwin has always abided by the religious commandment not to interact with death. He has never been to a funeral, much less seen a dead body. But when his ailing mother can no longer work and the only job he can find is grave digging, he must betray the life she built for him in order to provide for them both. Newly shorn of his dreadlocks and his past and determined to prove himself, Darwin finds himself adrift in a city electric with possibility and danger.

Yejide and Darwin will meet inside the gates of Fidelis, Port Angeles's largest and oldest cemetery, where the dead lie uneasy in their graves and a reckoning with fate beckons them both. A masterwork of lush imagination and immersive lyricism, When We Were Birds is a spellbinding novel about inheritance, loss, and love's seismic power to heal.

My Thoughts

This was one of my book club picks a while ago and I would be the first to admit I could not get past the first fifty pages. Fast forward to April 2023 at the Bocas Lit Fest in Trinidad and Tobago, this book was displayed everywhere. I said to myself "nah" there has to be something that I am missing with this, so after purchasing a physical copy (cause I was reading it on my kindle before), I decided to give it a second chance. All I can say I am glad I did.

This book was out of my comfort zone, but I liked it very much. 

Magical realism is what it is most described as. This writer is skilled and brave because to write a story with complexed characters like Yejide and Darwin takes guts because it could either have been a hit or miss. I for one am glad she challenged herself.

After arriving to Port Angeles to take up a position as a grave digger (which is totally against his rastafarian beliefs), Darwin intends to make something of himself. However, danger lurks in the form of his coworkers. Yejide is a woman with a strange gift that comes to life upon the death of her mother Petronella. She has the ability to connect with the dead. A blessing or a curse inherited from her female ancestors, Yejide will soon find out the extent of her power when hers and Darwin's path collides.

Adventurous, Exciting, A real page turner, When we were birds will keep you at the edge of your seat.

 

BOOK REVIEW: TOMORROW AND TOMORROW AND TOMORROW BY GABRIELLE ZEVIN

ABOUT

In this exhilarating novel, two friends--often in love, but never lovers--come together as creative partners in the world of video game design, where success brings them fame, joy, tragedy, duplicity, and, ultimately, a kind of immortality.

On a bitter-cold day, in the December of his junior year at Harvard, Sam Masur exits a subway car and sees, amid the hordes of people waiting on the platform, Sadie Green. He calls her name. For a moment, she pretends she hasn't heard him, but then, she turns, and a game begins: a legendary collaboration that will launch them to stardom. These friends, intimates since childhood, borrow money, beg favors, and, before even graduating college, they have created their first blockbuster, Ichigo. Overnight, the world is theirs. Not even twenty-five years old, Sam and Sadie are brilliant, successful, and rich, but these qualities won't protect them from their own creative ambitions or the betrayals of their hearts.

Spanning thirty years, from Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Venice Beach, California, and lands in between and far beyond, Gabrielle Zevin's Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a dazzling and intricately imagined novel that examines the multifarious nature of identity, disability, failure, the redemptive possibilities in play, and above all, our need to connect: to be loved and to love. Yes, it is a love story, but it is not one you have read before.

My Thoughts

One word PERFECT!!!

I am in no way a fan of videogames so when I saw that this book was voted as one of the best books of 2022 by goodreads I was curious.

All I can say is, believe the hype. I enjoyed reading this from start to finish.

This story spoke to the power of friendship. It taught us the real meaning of LOVE (all types). the fact that the author used the creation of the game "Ichigo' to connect the three main characters Sadie, Sam and Marx was genius.

I am not going to write a very long review for this one because I really do not want to spoil it for anyone. I highly recommend this.
 

Book Review: The Golden Couple by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen

`

ABOUT 

The next electrifying novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author duo behind The Wife Between Us.

Wealthy Washington suburbanites Marissa and Matthew Bishop seem to have it all—until Marissa is unfaithful. Beneath their veneer of perfection is a relationship riven by work and a lack of intimacy. She wants to repair things for the sake of their eight-year-old son and because she loves her husband. Enter Avery Chambers.

Avery is a therapist who lost her professional license. Still, it doesn’t stop her from counseling those in crisis, though they have to adhere to her unorthodox methods. And the Bishops are desperate.

When they glide through Avery’s door and Marissa reveals her infidelity, all three are set on a collision course. Because the biggest secrets in the room are still hidden, and it’s no longer simply a marriage that’s in danger.

MY THOUGHTS

After reading "The Wife Between Us" I was very excited for this book, but while I enjoyed the storyline it was just ok in my opinion. 

I think Avery's character is what drew me into the story the most. She was a therapist/counsellor who upon loosing her license to practice, chose an unconventional way to provide therapy with her ten session approach. Her methods while different, seem to have had great success, so it was not unusual when power couple Marissa and Matthew entered her office with a marital issue. It was not long before Avery realized that there is something more sinister beneath the surface.

The story was written quite well and it was easy to get through the novel which I liked. I think however, I was expecting more drama at the end (while the story had some excitement it was not nearly enough). I would like to read the other books by these authors though so I can say which one is my favourite. While it was not my best book for the year it was ok nonetheless. 

The Golden Couple was my book club pick for the month of August. Feel free to join my book club Between the Pages on goodreads. Click the link in the sidebar.

 

Book Review: Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult

About:

Ruth Jefferson is a labor and delivery nurse at a Connecticut hospital with more than twenty years' experience. During her shift, Ruth begins a routine checkup on a newborn, only to be told a few minutes later that she's been reassigned to another patient. The parents are white supremacists and don't want Ruth, who is African American, to touch their child. The hospital complies with their request, but the next day, the baby goes into cardiac distress while Ruth is alone in the nursery. Does she obey orders or does she intervene?

Ruth hesitates before performing CPR and, as a result, is charged with a serious crime. Kennedy McQuarrie, a white public defender, takes her case but gives unexpected advice: Kennedy insists that mentioning race in the courtroom is not a winning strategy. Conflicted by Kennedy's counsel, Ruth tries to keep life as normal as possible for her family—especially her teenage son—as the case becomes a media sensation. As the trial moves forward, Ruth and Kennedy must gain each other's trust, and come to see that what they've been taught their whole lives about others—and themselves—might be wrong.

With incredible empathy, intelligence, and candor, Jodi Picoult tackles race, privilege, prejudice, justice, and compassion—and doesn't offer easy answers. Small Great Things is a remarkable achievement from a writer at the top of her game.

 

My Thoughts

If you have been following my blog for a while you would know that I am a bit of a Jodi Picoult fan. This is the fourth book I have read from her having previously read My Sister's Keeper, The Pact and Nineteen Minutes. While Small Great Things was not my favourite from her, it was a good story and a very important one to be told. As a person of colour from the Caribbean it pains me when I read stories that are about racism in any form. 

Ruth's story had to be told in my opinion. Many persons of colour have been subjected to discrimination in the workplace in some form. In Ruth's case she was a brilliant nurse, a graduate of Yale, one of the best universities, living a decent life and yet her co workers and superiors were quick to throw her under the bus when little Davis Bauer, newborn son of White Supremacist parents Turk and Brittany. 

In true Picoult style this book was well written. The most interesting character was the lawyer Kennedy McQuarrie. Kennedy prior to Ruth's case maybe had no idea that she herself was a bit prejudice. She represented most people who are not of colour who sometimes feel that they have no ill feelings towards others because of the colour of their skin. As Kennedy works on the case she unpacks some truths about herself that she never even thought about.

Ruth unpacked some truths as well, one of them being that all her life she had been trying to toe the line, do the right thing (which was the same values she taught her son Edison) but then she had to face the reality that no matter what you achieve in life, society will still see you as you are "a black face". What I admired was Ruth's passion for the nursing profession. so much so that she was willing to go to jail instead of the public going away thinking that she did not do all in her power to save Davis.

Turk, Francis and Brittany represented the fact that there are people in this world with so much hatred in their hearts that it blinds them and clouds their better judgement. 

In all this story was ok. It was worth the read.

Book Review: Butter Honey Pig Bread by Francesca Ekwuyasi

ABOUT

 Spanning three continents, Butter Honey Pig Bread tells the interconnected stories of three Nigerian women: Kambirinachi and her twin daughters, Kehinde and Taiye. Kambirinachi believes that she is an Ogbanje, or an Abiku, a non-human spirit that plagues a family with misfortune by being born and then dying in childhood to cause a human mother misery. She has made the unnatural choice of staying alive to love her human family but lives in fear of the consequences of her decision.

Kambirinachi and her two daughters become estranged from one another because of a trauma that Kehinde experiences in childhood, which leads her to move away and cut off all contact. She ultimately finds her path as an artist and seeks to raise a family of her own, despite her fear that she won't be a good mother. Meanwhile, Taiye is plagued by guilt for what her sister suffered and also runs away, attempting to fill the void of that lost relationship with casual flings with women. She eventually discovers a way out of her stifling loneliness through a passion for food and cooking.

But now, after more than a decade of living apart, Taiye and Kehinde have returned home to Lagos. It is here that the three women must face each other and address the wounds of the past if they are to reconcile and move forward.

For readers of African diasporic authors such as Teju Cole and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Butter Honey Pig Bread is a story of choices and their consequences, of motherhood, of the malleable line between the spirit and the mind, of finding new homes and mending old ones, of voracious appetites, of queer love, of friendship, faith, and above all, family.

My Thoughts

Did you ever read a book that made you speechless? 

After finishing  Butter Honey Pig Bread a few days ago  I am still at a loss for words. This book was very good for a number of reasons, but for me it spoke to the importance of healing and forgiveness. While the author indeed explored a number of themes in the story the relationship between the twins Taiye and Kehinde was most notable.

In "Butter Honey Pig Bread", you meet Kambirinachi and her twins Taiye a chef and Kehinde an artist. These women all have unresolved trauma and issues. For Kambirinachi, her struggle is with death of loved ones before and a struggle to stay alive in this world. She finds love in Banji but eventually he also dies leaving her with the twin girls. So immense was her grief, that Kambirinachi disappears within herself leaving her daughters at risk for "a bad thing" to occur. This "bad thing" (you will read about it) caused a separation of both sisters expanding years and across continents.

Upon returning to Lagos. Kehinde and Taiye struggle to repair their relationships with one another and repair what has been broken within themselves. Why I liked this book is because I think that unresolved hurt can harm you throughout your life if it is not dealt with by way of forgiveness. This book reminded readers of the power of forgiveness. 

I also liked learning about the different dishes that Taiye made throughout the book. There were even some recipes which I may even attempt because the foods are new to me. It was a nice touch to add food to the dynamic. 

I recommend trying this one.